The looming Personal Tax Return (Self Assesment) deadline...
Whether this is the first time you have ever filed your Personal Tax Return (otherwise known as a Self Assessment) or you have been filing them for years, it is always good to have a reminder that the deadline for filing these online is the 31st of January 2016.
The 31st of January is a Sunday?
HMRC often experience a huge influx of queries regarding Personal Tax Returns on the week running up to the filing date - which means, the quicker you find out the information you need and file your return, the better. The HMRC offices will not be open on Saturday the 30th of January or Sunday the 31st of January, so it might be a good idea to make Friday the 29th your new deadline.
Have you ever read the business book ‘Eat that frog’ by Brian Tracy? if not, it’s a highly rated book: 'Get more of the important things done today!'
The general premise behind it is that throughout your working day you will partake in tasks that you enjoy doing and others that you look forward to less.
In fact, some of those tasks might be the ones that you dread and put off for days or weeks. The ‘eat the frog’ philosophy presents the idea that if you do your most important tasks first (those that can significantly impact your success) at the beginning of the day or week - then you eliminate inefficient procrastination and the rest of your day so you are on fire!
So if you haven’t yet filled your Personal Tax Return, and it has become your frog... then the time has come to eat it and our friends at HMRC have created some tools to make this as easy as possible for you.
There are webinars and videos about submitting your Self Assessment:
2016 see's the introduction of your Personal Tax Account - here is a video from HMRC looking at the changes this makes to you: click here to watch
The HMRC YouTube channel has videos on all of the following topics:
- registering for Self Assessment
- your first Self Assessment tax return
- viewing your calculation
- expenses if you’re self-employed
- paying your Self Assessment tax bill
- budgeting for your Self Assessment tax bill
- important dates for Self Assessment
- can’t pay your tax bill
- Self Assessment penalties
There are also live webinars with expert HMRC staff to answer your Self Assessment return questions.
Live webinars taking place this week:
26 January 2016 midday to 2 pm
29 January 2016 10 am to midday
30 January 2016 9 am to midday